Only 30 percent of U.S. employees are engaged, new Gallup survey finds

Gallup asked 150,000 employees whether they like their jobs. A good many actively hate them. Half just kind of tolerate the work day.

A common tactic people use to get their friends to stop complaining about work is to say that everybody hates their jobs.

The sentiment may be more than just a way to get people to shut up, though. According to a recent survey by Gallup, it's pretty close to true.

Of 150,000 full and part-time employees polled, only 30 percent said they're engaged in their work. Another 50 percent said they aren't engaged, while 20 percent said they're "actively disengaged," which means they outright hate their jobs.

Why does that matter? People who report being engaged in their work are more productive, less likely to leave, and even less likely to have accidents on the job. Disengaged employees are more likely to skip work, negatively influence co-workers and scare off customers.

Some things are less easy to fix, though. Service workers are the most disengaged of any type of employee. Their engagement has decreased while the engagement of employees in other sectors has gone up.

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To your greater success!

Peter Mclees, MS LMFT
Principal